


Lightness in the Dark

by Harmonica_Smile (Rescue_Remedy)



Series: Domestic Blindness [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Related, Creative use of devil fruit powers, Ex-slaves, Ferris Wheels, Fishmen discrimination, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Rare Pairings, References to Sabaody Park, Summer, Trafalgar D. Water Law-centric, back yard bbq, blowing bubbles, do not copy to another site, not ship-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21756421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rescue_Remedy/pseuds/Harmonica_Smile
Summary: Law practiced his fruit. Miniscule. Lighting up small domes of his Room at the tips of his fingers, and twisting them between his digits like fireflies flitting through the trees. Bepo looked on, engrossed. It was his favourite party trick. Everyone else was deep in murmured conversations of exploits of mythology and idiocy. Law angled back with a smile, catching Bepo's eye for a second…and Aladine's.The merman was rapt. Law sat up, a little surprised. Because his sleight of hand had been noticed, and at the glee bathing his face."Can you do bubbles?" Aladine's voice rumbled across the yard like the slap of the sea against a boat's hull.**Sorry to my subscribers/regular readers. I just wanted to share some of the sweeter parts of my long fics for those who don't read dark.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Series: Domestic Blindness [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558741
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	1. bubbles

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit of background. I'll be posting a few chapters of the lighter stuff from some of my longer works for readers who stick to G-T and might have missed it, or who just don't do dark, which is fair. In this AU, Luffy's the pirate king with a brand new world, but some of the old laws were never changed, and certain elements want to round up the ex-slaves and reintroduce slavery. That is _not_ the focus of this piece, but just to give you some background. Luffy pardoned Doflamingo too. Originally posted in _Cuckold_ November, 2019.

* * *

**bubbles**

* * *

"You don't get too scared of big ugly fellas."

Law and Jean Bart sat in the yard. Things were running smoothly. Jean Bart oversaw this safehouse, or the getting in of the staff, and worked in conjunction with the Strawhats and the Revolutionaries. Anyone who was down with the cause. He'd sail with the Hearts if they set out to sea. Same went for the Strawhats and key Revolutionaries and their respective crews. The Sun Pirates too.

Law sealed a rollie paper, swiping it over his tongue one way and then the other. He secured the contents, pushing down with a twig from the garden, held a flame and let the joint smoulder. He lifted the toke to his lips. "Nah, I don't." Inhaled.

He admired the massive Moreton Bay Fig tree. He loved the visible roots folded like the pleats of a fan. It was too cold for them in the North Blue and they were too big for the greenhouses in the botanical gardens, but he'd read about them and always imagined slipping in between them like a rabbit tumbling into the underworld.

"You didn't freak out when you approached me on Sabaody," Jean Bart said, elbows on his knees, fists under his chin.

Law's arm dangled behind his chair frame. They'd dragged a few seats out from the kitchen. Jean Bart took up _all_ of the bench seat.

"It didn't seem to me that the monsters were in chains."

"Huh." Jean Bart refused the joint—he'd crush it just by holding it—and so Law settled back into his chair, lifted it to his mouth again.

"Couldn't get a girl to look twice at me in my homeland."

Law exhaled, and looked over the fierce face and high inked forehead, at the scar running diagonally from the base of one hooked tattoo to just above Jean Bart's eye. He had to crane his neck. He was about double Bepo's size, and Law didn't come up to Bepo's shoulder.

"A great strapping lad like you?"

Jean Bart hunkered down and spied Sanji exiting the back of the house.

"Unbelievable, right?"

"I wasn't always a Greek Adonis either," Law smiled, drew in his feet as Blackleg passed.

Sanji placed a large cup of amazake in Jean Bart's hands. The cook wondered if he was a giant. A bit on the small side. He didn't drink much booze, but enjoyed the sweet, very low alcohol, drink, made from the lees of sake, the dregs after the fermentation process—sake-kasu.

Ronin—the samurai without a master, destined to wander until they found one—used to make it in the summer in the old days, though it was a winter drink now, but screw that, Sanji was bringing old-fashioned back. He could just imagine Zoro slaving over a huge pot of the mixture, selling it for a beri or two, spending his earnings on something stronger.

Their benefactor from the north had brought some paste down with him, at Sanji's request, when he'd dropped off the bottles of sake. The weather _was_ a bit warm for it, but it was a comfort drink, thick like a watery porridge. Perfect for easing anxiety in these troubled times, though it looked like Law had his own methods. They used to drink it to keep cool. One of those counterintuitive things. It was so valuable to health that the government set the price and kept it low.

Sanji lifted the toke from Law's hand and took a drag. Gave it back to the surgeon. Law didn't blink. Zoro would've been at his throat.

"That's Cavendish, isn't it? Adonis? Blond and all. The ladies prefer blonds."

"Just as well," Law said, "Though so do I." He eyed Sanji with a wicked glint.

"You're exclusive, shithead."

Jean Bart murmured thanks before downing the drink.

Law sighed. "I know. Franky got jealous with me seeing other men."

Sanji lit up one of his own cigarettes, hands hiding his quick smile, and pulled up a folding chair near Law. Sat.

"He's not blond."

Law didn't know how he'd ended up with a blond. He was more a seek-your-own-type kind of a guy, but then, Marco and he had similar builds, even if he could look down at him when he put his mind to it. He'd just smother him in tea-towels, or another of his very particular hobbies, and that levelled the playing field.

Smoker wasn't dark. Nor was Penguin. Law was a traitor to his own self. Maybe he'd made up for it with Luffy, short thing that he was.

"S'pose blond's a coverall. Any colour that's not brown or black."

"You've got blond streaks, then." Sanji eyed the hints of blue in Law's hair.

"Huh, guess I do," Law grinned.

"And you just lumped me with Marimo."

"Yeah," Law relit the joint. "Sorry 'bout that." But also with Marco and Law himself, blue streaks taken into account.

* * *

The garden was quiet and chill. The safehouse was always busy. Folks arriving, leaving, being treated. Volunteers dealing with cleaning, catering, laundry. Whenever Law visited he relaxed in the yard for a while, and those who wanted to talk to him knew where to find him.

The canopy of branches and leaves and the walls around the property both calmed him and left him feeling a little hemmed in, without clear vision. But he'd scoped the exits, the weaknesses in the walls, the objects he could use in combat or escape.

The kitchen door banged against the outside wall. Law finished the joint, turned. Marco and Aladine stepped onto the lawn—Marco's head bent in conversation, finger and thumb straightening his glasses. That light blue shirt suited him. Aladine carried two six packs of island brew.

Marco returned Law's grin and hand lifted in greeting. The Heart turned back to Sanji and Jean Bart, lay his head back, and watched the evening stars dot the sky through the gaps of the tree's branches.

Law had needed to make more split decisions in his life than he could count. Whether to mourn his parents or save his own life. To take Lammy with him or put her somewhere safe. To join the Donquixote Family or remain alone.

He'd probably thought about that one too long.

Whether to take down Doflamingo.

Yeah, he'd brooded on that one. Maybe planning was the thing that fucked him up.

But in conflict a fighter had to act. In safe times it was hard to let go of that response, to know who to trust or not. He trained himself. The calm before the New World, taking it easy as the submarine floated on the surface, bobbing with the current or lack of it.

Aladine shook out a huge rug and tossed down a few red cylindrical and square cushions trimmed with gold brocade. He lowered himself to the ground. The crickets were firing away in the tree. Marco pulled the chair nearest to Law closer and clamped his thigh, Law sending him a glance of recognition, before Marco reached across for the beers, the bottle opener, and popped the lid off four. Passed them around.

Law thanked him. He was still strung out from the attacks, the targeting of the Hearts and other ex-slaves. He knew Marco wasn't fully attuned to all that was good with the world either. You pushed through, but he felt more at ease with the Phoenix there. Both paved their own path, but didn't mind the tread of the other on the stones, welcomed it.

The air was brittle, like the lace of an egg frying in a pan—but fear was its own captivity.

* * *

Ikkaku, Nami, and Bepo wandered out. All three wearing jinbei, the loosely woven cotton shorts and light short-sleeved jacket, tied so neatly from the inside and then out, to beat the season's heat. The two navigators traded seafaring stories and tips. Nami's jinbei was patterned with stag beetles, and Ikkaku's and Bepo's with the Heart emblem, of course. Though Bepo's had a few fish swimming about the hem, and Ikkaku's swirled with stylised sea urchins. She must have borrowed Uni's gear.

Luckily they'd brought their own beer, though it looked as if Nami might grab the remaining few bottles Aladine had purchased and charge them for it. Law grinned around the mouth of his drink as they kicked off their flipflops and shoes and settled into the cushions.

Sanji leant Law's way, and Law was surprised he trusted him with it, but he shambled out the portable gas cooker—gently, gently does it, at his request. Sanji returned to the kitchen and exited with the amazake, bubbling in the huge silver saucepan. He placed the mixture on the burner, on the blanket, and set the heat to a low flame. Removed his oven mitts and doled out cups, large and small, of the drink.

Sanji, Marco and Jean-Bart argued about which region of the seas had the fiercest amazake baba, or amazake hag. The rumours were wild in Flevance that she was a demon who'd brought sickness to the town. People made offerings of the sweet drink to her statue at shrines and temples, or pinned cedar leaves to their house entrances so she wouldn't come shuffling by at night, knocking on their doors for the drink, and then spreading the plague whether her thirst was sated or not.

Superstitions. Law practiced his fruit. Miniscule. Lighting up small domes of his Room at the tips of his fingers, and twisting them between his digits like fireflies flitting through the trees. Bepo looked on, engrossed. It was his favourite party trick. Everyone else was deep in low murmured conversations of exploits of mythology and idiocy. Law angled back with a smile, catching Bepo's eye for a second…and Aladine's.

The merman was rapt. Law sat up, a little surprised. Because his sleight of hand had been noticed, and at the glee bathing his face.

"Can you do bubbles?" Aladine's voice rumbled across the yard like the slap of the sea against a boat's hull.

Law almost powered down but there was something in the man's features. His silver hoops were dull against his face in the diminishing light, but Aladine's face glowed.

"On Fishman Island we dreamed of the fresh air and the pretty bubbles of Sabaody. Everyone's childhood dream was to ride the Ferris wheel."

And they could. Now they could. Except if Doflamingo and his cronies got their way.

"Did you go to fairs, Law, when you were young?" Nami asked. On Sabaody? Somewhere else? She and Ikkaku clinked drinks in summer cheer, but looked on, waiting for an answer.

"Festivals, yeah." He shut down his fruit. Could he make perfect, separate, spheres to float in the yard? He'd need to be careful that none flew too high. Were they still under his control if he sent the Room away from him?

The number of times he'd refused to go to festivals with Lammy. He'd been such a serious child. He peeked at Aladine again from under the brim of his hat, and Bepo, Nami and Ikkaku all seemed eager to see him try. Nami's red hair. Damn it.

Marco—still in conversation with Sanji about the witches of the Grand Line, the back of his head to Law—rested his hand on Law's knee again. A clasp, a squeeze, then lifted it. Whatever you choose is okay. It would hardly drain him.

Law whispered the action under his breath, and the blue appeared between his fingers like webbing. Even that was enough to make Aladine cackle. Law meshed his hands together—Kikoku pushing across his shoulder—put his lips to the intertwined fist and blew, pretending that his exhalation could launch bubbles.

"Captain!"

Bepo. He squirmed like Chopper doing his weirdly happy rejection dance. Law lowered his eyes. Nami's red hair, and his crew, dammit.

He released the edges of his palms the furthest away from him, curtains drifting open and closed in the breeze. Blue domes, circles, bubbles, suds, surrounded them like phosphorescence in the ocean. He looked up at Jean Bart. Had he wanted to ride the Ferris wheel too?

Even Nami was quiet, apart from an exclamation or two. The domes floated as high as Jean Bart, and there was Lammy and her insistence on watching all of the fireworks all the way through, though she always fell asleep on the blanket. Their father carrying her home. Law trudging behind, too tired to refuse his mother's hand.

Aladine's laugh was tuneful. Law hadn't heard it often. The bubbles drifted around him and rose as high as…

As high as. No. He could control his power for great distances, that wasn't the point, and manipulated all manner of things in one sphere, but dispersed and carbonated like this? He wasn't sure. He pulled the rooms in quickly. It hadn't affected his stamina but he shouldn't be too frivolous.

"Tora-o!"

"Captain!"

A questioning look from Aladine, but Jean Bart, Sanji and Marco leant forward, Sanji extinguishing the fire of the burner. Law stood, unsheathed Kikoku and opened a wider single Room.

A slow, steady, clap echoed from the higher branches of the fig tree.

"Very touching, Law. Nice to see the adult has not yet completely abandoned the child."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this AU/World, Law has quite a few exes, and remains friends with them all: Penguin from way back, Smoker, and Luffy (not all at once). His hobbies are also so hobby-tex kinda innocuous that they appear esoteric in the cutthroat pirate world, other than collecting body parts and preserving them in formaldehyde. That one's either bloodthirsty or normal.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and again, sorry subscribers. Hope you don't mind. 
> 
> If you liked it, kudos and comments feed a fan-fiction writer's soul. Truly. Thanks again. :-)


	2. ferris wheel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if anyone intends to read _A few drops of holy cuckold_ , this will spoil the good ending for you, so stop here. And fair warning, do not read that long fic if you don't like dark fics. For everyone else, this two-shot is light, but doesn't really have flow in terms of story, so maybe view it as a showcase for Law's abilities.

* * *

**ferris wheel**

* * *

A bouquet of light glinted off glass, funnelled and coned across the water like sprays of baby breath, and lit the corner of a dull red mesh barrier, the rest shadowed under a bridge. The inhabitants of the Ferris wheel car shielded their eyes from the glare, then dropped their hands from their faces as the ride rose higher.

Squashed between Robin and Franky on one side of the carriage, the demon child held Law in place. He didn't mind being their favoured companion, but it got a bit much at times. A flash of blue and a ticket stub floated to the hard plastic seat as he shambled himself to the opposite bench, next to Marco. Leant into him. Crushing him. The carriage swayed a little. Franky frowned. Should be sturdier than that

"Aren't you meant to be the master of that damn fruit?" Marco asked.

"There, there," Law laughed, planting a quick peck on his cheek, "I am." Marco placed a palm over the embrace and looked out the window, a small smile creeping across his face like a tongue-tied sixteen-year-old. Damn, must be back in the good books.

Law brushed his head against his clamped arm and shoulder, a pup with no notion of personal space. Marco smiled more broadly, lifted his arm, and Law tucked in, warm breast to heart.

Then shambled Marco out.

And had the best window seat.

The view of the ocean. Marco next to him. The blond leant his head back against the metal and groaned.

"Hafta be so flashy about everything?"

Law was intent on peering out the window, but he quickly glanced at Marco. "Like this?" he asked, and flashed his best smile, finger pointing at his pearly whites.

Arms crossed, but head turned, Marco allowed himself a quick grin. "My eyes are smiling."

"Are they, now?" Law thought they were rolling with well-deserved exasperation.

"Positively dancing, bro," Franky said in his best inside-a-Ferris-wheel-car voice. Law and Marco winced. Robin remained calm. Probably something to do with knowing she could break any of their necks at any time.

"Star-aligned lovers, indeed," she said. They could be cute. Not as cute as Ryunosuke, the poorly drawn dragon left to fade out on the back of the Elephant island, Zou, but in their own scrappy way.

"You get the seaside view because—?" Marco spread his arms across the back of the seat. The sky was fluffy goodness and recesses of blue. A news coo flew past on its way to spreading some form of government soft sell, despite tightened media regulations.

"Aw, c'mon man."

Marco stared across at Franky.

"It's still a novelty to him. All that time spent in the submarine. Never gets to see the ocean from this angle. He's like a cute little cockroach crawling into the sun. And let's face it, he can't fly like you. And the Polar Tang—solid as she is—just don't have anything like the Coup de burst."

"Humour him," Robin said, "It's best."

Marco's gaze flicked to Robin then back to Franky.

"Law, not the cyborg. Or both, best to humour both."

Law shot her a look, over his shoulder. _Ohara_. Her serenity could teach the Madonna a thing or two. _Flevance_ her gaze shot back.

"Everyone's got a poor cousin, I guess," Marco sighed. Law knelt on the bench and leant halfway out the window like a primary school sprog who had yet to figure out the laws of gravity.

"With manners to match." Franky was solemn. He was so tall Robin didn't even have to adjust as he put his palms on the back of his head, elbows out. "Yeah, I know bro, it's a tough row to hoe."

There were worse things than Franky's rhymes. Humour him. Robin was wise. Marco lifted his chin in acknowledgement of the all a-o-kay-ness. The shipwright was spot on. He turned to the shaggy tattooed mop to his right.

Law was still half out the large valance window like a three-year old on a sugar high. Three-year-olds probably rode these cars all the time. Why were the windows openable?

Marco tugged at the back of his trousers. Hooked a thumb under one of his belt loops, the leather of Law's belt soft against his skin.

"That's why we had him between us."

"If it's not hyperactivity it's Thanatos."

Law shot a look back at Robin again, shook his head.

She calmly stared him down. Gallows humour helped them both avoid the gibbet, for sure, but she knew there were times when the noose had held more attraction for him than reality. She sent a hand to join Marco's in making sure he didn't pitch out too far. Who'd he think he was? Luffy?

She scratched a mole just above his lumbar, and he twitched.

"Thanatos?" Franky asked.

Law flopped back into the car, Marco quickly pulling his hand away from behind him before it hit the seat, Robin's appendage disappearing. "Death wish," Law answered. "Nah," he shook his head and cupped his hands. "For others perhaps." Yeah, he had a death wish for a few people. Had never quite outgrown that phase.

He drew up a room like peering into a crystal ball and Franky looked a bit panicked. Law about to demonstrate the ink on his fingers wasn't just for show? Always wondered what had stopped the Heart captain from getting a little prison scratch teardrop. He'd certainly killed a few men.

"Steady, bro. Wasn't me who said you were about to top yourself."

Law looked over the blue. It refracted onto his face with an eerie glow, and the shadowed hatching from his cap and concentration made him more maniac than medicine man.

"She can break your neck, you know?" Franky knew he could always rely on Robin if he was in a fix.

Law nodded. He blew across his hands, and manipulated his fingers. Franky stiffened, but Law had never purposefully hurt him, so why start now? But the air charged differently when he used his devil's fruit, so instinctive wariness just meant he was ready for action, not that he had to act. Law was fast, though.

The blue bubbles Law sent into the carriage appeared to float across the air from his breath alone. An illusion. They drifted around Marco and the others like hothouse butterflies. Marco'd do anything to see that smile more often.

Law directed his finger a few times, a train engineer checking a crossing, and the blue left the window, floated across the sky, and entered the cars above and below them.

"Captain!"

Marco moved closer as Bepo's delighted voice wended its way up to them. Law didn't look down. Marco followed his gaze to the car above them. Aladine, bewitched, had a larger window open, and tried to catch and pop the small bubbles, the miniature Rooms, as they crossed his vision. Law flicked his pinky each time to make sure they dissipated, as if he had. Jean Bart at the foot of the Ferris Wheel lifted his head at the rumble of laughter.

Aladine's smile—sea spray on skin after being landbound—was almost as good as Law's. Marco sat back into the carriage, and Law sent a swarm of blue into the car above. Sabo's top hat, Koala's cap, both blonds joined Aladine, and peered below. Through the clear curved roof, Franky kept an eye on the grips holding the gondala above.

The three withdrew into the car. Sabo had set sail, to navigate his small boat across the bay into the larger seas when he was barely ten, and a tenryubito had fired at him, fired at the boat, sunk it, and left him to die in the ensuing fire.

He wasn't sure he understood the simple pleasure Koala and Aladine had in just following the circles across the air in front of them like cats tracking string, but it was connected to captivity, and from the time when the only roles Fishmen and mermen were deemed fit to fill (by humans) was that of slaves. If not for Fisher Tiger and his crew, Aladine included, Koala wouldn't have rebuilt herself. Even the smallest pleasures were off limits when she belonged to others.

One bubble expanded, grew larger, filled the carriage and, oh fuck. Sabo really didn't like having his head cut off. Koala sat back in the seat—laughing—as Sabo griped in her lap. He was so much easier to handle this way. She stuck a thumb out the window to thank Law, then pulled on Sabo's ears. Sputtering anger suited him. His indignant headless torso flailed next to her.

Ping pong ball-sized rooms drifted to where Jean Bart stood with the members of the crew who had no interest in riding the Ferris Wheel. Or were just too tall. Tony Tony Chopper sat on his shoulder, and they both ate fairy floss*.

The quiet, fierce helmsman lifted a curious hand, almost unconsciously, and absorbed the blue. This was one of Captain's favourite tricks, but he usually created them to pull Bepo out of a funk. The bubbles in Sabaoday confirmed how much Jean Bart hadn't belonged, how few rights he had. Anyone could enjoy these.

Chopper, in so much wide-mouthed wonder, forgot all about his treat.

A bird swooped in and took off with it. Jean Bart—eyes set on the flickering blue—automatically handed the small doctor his own before before he got too upset. It was soft, and fluffy, and sticky and melted on his tongue. Chopper didn't protest.

When Luffy—zooming up to the Hearts, and Chopper, the rest of the crew in tow—tried to eat the bubbles Law knew it was time to draw them back in. Their uneven weights could tip the carriages slightly, but Luffy's strength could bring the whole structure down. Anyway, the allotted number of revolutions was almost up. Fittingly, the ride was named the emancipation wheel.

"Don't think you're off the hook, Trafalgar!" echoed down from the car above as Sabo pulled his head tightly onto his body. It was bad enough that Aladine and Koala shuddered with giggles, but Franky, Robin and Marco cracking up contributed to the festival air as well. Law, smarmy bastard, probably just sat there with that cat-that-got-the-cream face.

Koala held his hand though, and straightened his top hat, and placed a kiss on his jaw. "They were pretty. Not to be destroyed."

He looked down at her. And over at Aladine. "But I didn't touch them."

"She's come a long way, Sabo," the merman said. He actually had tried to burst them.

"No-one likes being the butt of a joke." Koala, pushed Sabo's hair back, and he nodded, straightening out his gloves. "He'd never choose anyone who couldn't take it."

A stray bubble moved across the car, then disappeared without a trace.

"It's because you're strong."

Sabo cracked his knuckles. Nodded. "Yeah. Guess so. I've been through worse."

And hadn't he, and hadn't they all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Cotton Candy is called Fairy Floss in Australia (and Candy Floss in the UK). And I just found out from [this article](https://www.gmpopcorn.com/resources/blog/how-did-cotton-candy-get-started) that it was _originally_ called Fairy Floss. Interesting. Of course, "Fairy Floss Chopper" doesn't work at all, but oh well.
> 
> Thanks for reading. I know they're not really a story like this, but I hope that those who read enjoyed. There is a full on fight scene that follows the bbq scene in the last chapter, and I could look at a way of including that, but it would have to be edited quite a bit, because there's a fair amount of smack talk in it.
> 
> As it stands, I hope you all enjoyed Law's bubbles as much as Aladine did.
> 
> My [tumblr.](https://chromatic-lamina.tumblr.com/)


End file.
